Joe

As painfully obvious that the failure of the Microsoft Surface experiment might be for any regular Joe that deals with technology on a daily (or even weekly or monthly) basis, the big kahunas over in Redmond (whoever they are) seem to want more than anything to take a second stab at conquering the tablet world.

Definitive Technology said this week that it has named Joe Finn to the position of marketing and international sales manager. An industry veteran who formerly worked at Velodyne Acoustics, Sonace and Polk Audio, Finn will report to senior vice president for marketing and product development Paul DiComo.

Joe’s Sports and Outdoors, an Oregon-based retailer with 26 stores in the Northwest, sells a lot of GPS systems and depth finders. But the company figured it could sell more if those devices were displayed in a way in which customers could hold them, test the features and access consistent product information that could answer questions and assist in the sale. The company thought about building its own display system from scratch but decided it would make more sense to source the full solution from Merchandising Technology Inc. (MTI), which in the past had provided Joe’s with “high quality” displays for its audio products, said